Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Delta Delta Delta, Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, these combinations of Greek letters are not just thrown together in random order, they represent just a few of the many Greek letter organizations that have been created and spread through the college world since 1925. These social fraternities were founded on a basis of moral standards, academic excellence, and fellowship among members. To this day many of those values hold true across countless members of these Greek organizations, but in recent years' Greek life organizations have been under scrutiny from the media due to negative stereotypes perpetuated by movies and the actions of a select few members of these organizations. In all reality, Greek organizations are much more beneficial than people think, and these benefits like philanthropy and community service, scholarship, endless of leadership opportunities, and networking.

To start I would like to give a brief history of Greek life and Greek social organizations. The word fraternity comes from the Greek phrater meaning member of a group and the word sorority comes from the Latin soror meaning sister. Technically speaking the only organization that was truly founded as a sorority is Gamma Phi Beta but all other women's Greek letter organizations fondly refer to themselves as sororities even though they are all technically fraternities. The first Greek letter organization in North America was Phi Beta Kappa which was founded at William and Mary on December 5, 1776. This first Greek letter society set the benchmark for what the basis of Greek organizations would be. Phi Beta Kappa had all the markings of a fraternity as we know them today including a secret motto, a handshake, a ritual, high standards for morals, scholastic achievement, and fellowship. In years to come many fraternities would come in Phi Beta Kappa's wake such as Beta Theta Pi in 1839, Phi Gamma Delta in 1848, and Pi Kappa Alpha in 1868. All of these fraternities were founded on the same principles that Phi Beta Kappa was formed upon. Not long after Greek letter fraternities began to spread through college campuses sororities started to pop up across north America. The first sorority in north America was I.C. Sorosis founded at Monmouth College, in 1867. The Sorosis did not acquire their Greek letters, Pi Beta Phi, until 1888. The first sorority to be founded with Greek letters was Kappa Alpha Theta. Having been assisted in formation by Phi Gamma Delta, who is often recognized as their unofficial brother fraternity, Theta was founded on the same basic principles that many fraternities before them also shared. In 1909 the National Interfraternity Conference was created. The NIC was founded of 26 fraternities now comprised of over 75 fraternities. The NIC now represents 350,000 current college students in over 5,400 chapters across 800 college campuses. The major governing body for most major sororities is the National Panhellenic Conference which represents 26 sororities. Even though fraternities and sororities have taken great steps to expand across thousands of college campuses for over 100 years and spread their good values to millions of students their activities are sadly heavily scrutinized by the media putting Greek life in a very negative light. 

In recent years' Greek life has come under fire from the media portraying them in a very negative light. It seemed that ever since the film Animal House was released in 1978 people started to put Greek life under a microscope. In the movie, a rag tag fraternity tries attempts to save their chapter from being kicked off campus after running into trouble with their university one too many times. The film romanticizes partying, pledging, hazing, and binge drinking throughout the film. After this film's release, the public started to take a closer look at the fraternity and sorority system, and they did not like what they found. The general public knew what was going on behind the closed doors of a fraternity or sorority house but no one seemed to call attention to it until Animal House made a mockery of it. The release of the film sparked the beginning of the new age of Greek life, the extravagant partying, hard hazing, heavy drinking side of Greek life. Kids started to join Greek organizations not for the values which they once stood for but for the outrageous life style that Animal House seemed to promise. This heavy surge in participation in Greek life did not go unnoticed and with more attention came a bigger margin of error. With the world watching your every move fraternities and sororities started to run into more and more problems with the media. Some poor decisions or destructive behaviors performed by individual members or chapters as a whole began to represent entire organizations and by a stretch of that idea, the Greek system as a whole. In recent years more and more reports are being published in regards to different organizations running into trouble with their universities or with the law due to underage consumption, hazing allegations, or accidental deaths related to events related to the organization. These events that are being publicized have created a negative stereotype which depicts Greek organizations as groups that just get together to drink and party together, but that is simply not true. The negative depiction of Greek organizations may represent some groups but rest assured these organizations are in the minority, Greek organizations are actually more beneficial than detrimental to student life for many reasons especially through philanthropy. 

A huge part of membership in Greek organizations and a huge part of Greek life, in general, is participation in philanthropic events. Every year millions of dollars are raised in charitable donations that go towards numerous charities across North America. Many organizations hold charity events or fundraisers which do not garner as much attention as they deserve. In 2013 and 2014 alone 399 of the 575 chapters' part of the National Panhellenic Conference reported raising a cumulative amount of over 5.7 million dollars for their respective philanthropies. (2013-14 Annual Report) Many sororities and fraternities have specific philanthropic organizations that they always associate themselves with; examples include Delta Delta Delta which is well known for their efforts to support St. Jude's Children's Hospitals and Phi Gamma Delta recognizes the Red Cross as their national philanthropy. No matter if a Greek organization prefers to support a single philanthropy or multiple organizations, almost all organizations no matter how big or small, try their best to help out in any way that they can. In a study carried out by Pete Parker and NP Catalyst concluded that of the Greek members surveyed 95% reported that philanthropy was either important or extremely important to the Greek chapters on their respective campuses. In the same study, 74% members of Greek members surveyed reported that they believed between 80%-100% of chapters on campus actively include philanthropy in their chapter operations. These are the numbers that go criminally underreported, the media refuses to give the spotlight to the aspects of Greek life that clearly benefit the masses just because puff stories about a hazing scandal gets more views. Not only do Greek organizations hold and organize fundraising events for their philanthropies to help others they also assist their local communities by giving back through service, another staple of Greek life that remains underappreciated. 

Betterment of oneself is a near universal value that is shared by most Greek organizations across the board so it is no surprise that many organizations believe that through the betterment of one's surroundings help towards the betterment of one's self. In many Greek organizations, it should come as no surprise that when you look at their structure they have a cabinet member specifically assigned to overseeing the organization and planning of community service events. Another common component of membership in Greek organizations is a requirement for community service on a semester basis, some organizations even hold mandatory events that have penalties for not attending, which goes to show how important participation is to Greek organizations. According to The Fraternity Advisor "The Greek system is the largest network of volunteers in the US, with members donating over 10 million hours of volunteer work a year." These numbers are truly astounding compared to other organizations, with around 750,000 undergraduate members across the US and Canada each member should average about 13 hours of service per year according to The Fraternity Advisor's statistics. Greek organizations hold their members to high standards not just in regards to maintaining their service hours and helping their philanthropies but in academics as well. 

Due to the nature of the foundation of Greek letter societies, many fraternities hold the same high standard of scholarly achievement, many fraternities and sororities even integrate these ideals into their core values. At almost all major universities there is a minimum GPA requirement to even be considered for Greek recruitment. As expressed in the article What Greek Life has to Offer the author expresses "As all Greek organizations have their own minimum GPA requirements, scholarship and academics are something that Greeks take seriously." To remain in good standing with the organization to prevent academic suspension or even being or removed from the organization the minimum GPA must be satisfied. Much like community service, when you look closely at the structure of modern Greek organizations a major component is a scholarship chairman or chairwoman. This members job is to make sure other members are on the correct path to maintain in good standing with the standards of the school, the chapter, and the organization's headquarters. Because Greek organizations place scholarship at such a high level those students who are part of Greek organizations have shown that they frequently produce better grades than the average non-affiliated student at their respective universities. According to The Fraternity Advisor, "a high percentage of the 4,000 NIC fraternity chapters are above the All-Men's scholastic average on their respective campuses." This statistic goes to prove that contrary to popular belief fraternities are not full of meatheads that just want to drink and party their way through college achieving the bare minimum for scholastic achievement. While a Greek organization can provide you with the tools to help you achieve and maintain good grades it can also provide you with a unique asset that not many people get in college, leadership experience. 

In each Greek organization, there has to be a structure to follow so the group can function smoothly and be successful as a whole. Within each fraternity and sorority, there is a structure of leadership and a group of committees headed by one or two people with a handful of people on each committee. Universal positions across most organizations are president, treasurer, risk management, philanthropy, scholarship, and community service. Aside from these positions, there are organization specific positions like secretary, vice president, historian, and membership development. Each of these positions can give the member who holds them a unique experience in terms of leadership maybe putting them in a position that they did not previously see themselves in. These positions are also great resume builders because almost all employers look for applicants with a background in basic leadership and if you already have experience with this you will look better than your competition. Also due to the way cabinet and committee membership is structured over your time in an organization you may be able to be part of multiple leadership positions so your experience is more diverse. In addition to leadership positions which look great on an application another great asset provided by Greek organizations is networking which will help you get your applications to the right people after you graduate.

Since the creation of Greek letter societies, millions have entered into the interfraternal bond of brotherhood and sisterhood. With millions of people participating in Greek societies over the past millennium, many well-connected people in politics and business are Greek. Some major facts about fraternity membership reported by The Fraternity Advisor include that "Of the nation's 50 largest corporations 43 are headed by fraternity men" and "85% of Fortune 500 Executives belong to a fraternity." With high numbers like this, it shows that being a member of a Greek organization is not only invaluable during your college years but after you leave school as well. When applying for a new job or internship fraternity or sorority may be the factor that gives you an upper hand over your competition. The idea behind this is that if a recruiter or potential employer is also a member of a Greek organization they understand that you share the same values that they were taught during their time in college. Not only can membership in a fraternity help you land a job but it can also help you find one. When you are initiated into a fraternity or sorority you are instantly given what seems like an endless source of networking opportunities because not only do you now have contacts with numerous new people but you now have the ability to utilize the contacts of your new found friendships within your organization. Networking is an invaluable asset that Greek life provides for its members. Networking is not really something you can buy it is something earned and gained as you progress through life, so not only are your assets available to your brothers or sisters but their assets are also available to you.

Constant scrutiny from the media has placed Greek life in a very negative light in recent years, and unfairly so, in all reality, Greek life is much more beneficial than it is portrayed. Greek letter organizations have been around since 1825, they have endured over 100 years of operation but they are just recently coming under heavy fire. Many people see Greek life as an excuse to binge drink and act irresponsibly, this idea has continued to be perpetuated by pop culture like movies and TV shows, a prime example being Animal House which started a revival and influx of Greek life but not for the right reasons. Greek organizations share many of the same values and none of them encourage irresponsible behavior or binge drinking your way through school. Fraternities and sororities are founded on the basis of high moral standards, academic achievement, and fellowship through membership; standards which should be revered, not negated completely by the actions of the few irresponsible individuals. If the positive impacts of Greek involvement were as heavily reported on as the negative aspects, the good would far outweigh the bad and in my opinion, it is sad that media seems to just want to pick apart these organizations for what seems like to just get a good story. The negative representation of Greek life in the media is atrocious and needs to be put to an end, it is our right to formulate our own opinions based on facts from both sides, but due to one-sided reporting from the media, that luxury is stripped from us.

 